The Permanent Forum invites the newly established Facilitative Working Group of the local communities and indigenous peoples platform to collaborate closely with bodies outside the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change on matters relating to climate change and indigenous peoples, in accordance with its mandate (Conference of the Parties decision 2/CP.24, para. 20).
The Permanent Forum applauds the historic decision of the United Nations Human Rights Council in recognizing the right to water as a human right, as well as its decision to initiate a study on the scope and content of the relevant human rights obligations related to equitable access to safe drinking water and sanitation under international human rights instruments, to be submitted prior to the sixth session of the Council. The Permanent Forum also calls upon the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to present to the seventh session of the Permanent Forum the results of her study on the impact on the rights of indigenous peoples in terms of contamination, diversion, appropriation and privatization of water, which is sacred to indigenous peoples and is central to all life.
The Forum recommends that United Nations bodies, in particular the Convention on Biological Diversity, in coordination with the World Bank, UNDP, FAO and IFAD, and UNEP, organize a workshop on protecting sacred places and ceremonial sites of indigenous peoples with a view to identifying protective mechanisms and instituting a legal framework that make cultural, environmental and social impact assessments studies mandatory and ensure the environmental accountability of economic, social and environmental projects that are proposed to be conducted on sacred sites and on lands, territories and waters traditionally occupied or used by indigenous peoples.
The Permanent Forum welcomes the initiative of the secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization to host the International Conference on Biological and Cultural Diversity: Diversity for Development (8-10 June 2010, Montreal, Canada) to develop a joint programme of work on biological and cultural diversity, and requests that future work include broad partnerships with the Permanent Forum, other relevant agencies, indigenous peoples’ organizations and non-governmental organizations